AP Decides That Crimea Can No Longer Be Called Part of Ukraine (HuffPost) The Associated Press announced Wednesday that it is changing the dateline on all of its stories from Crimea now that the region is being controlled by Russia and not Ukraine. The wire service said that it would no longer identify stories written there as coming from “Ukraine.” Rather, they will carry the dateline “Crimea.” The Hill / Global Affairs “Previously, we wrote ‘SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine (AP).’ But Ukraine no longer controls Crimea, and AP datelines should reflect the facts on the ground,” the news wire wrote in a guidance. Effective this week, the AP said it will now name a city and then Crimea. Politico / Dylan Byers on Media Because of a quirk of geography — the fact that Crimea doesn’t share a land border with Russia — the AP says it won’t use a “SEVASTOPOL, Russia” dateline, which would inevitably spur a heated political debate. The GuardianThe AP has waded into controversy before on its quest to avoid controversy. A year ago, the AP banned “illegal immigrant” and “illegal” to describe a person, explaining that “‘illegal’ should describe only an action,” especially as the editors decided it was important not to label people, “instead of behavior.” Slate / The Slatest The latest decision also begs the question, what would the AP do if there were a shared border or if Russia were to grab more land in Ukraine, thereby connecting the regions?

David Frum Named Senior Editor at The Atlantic (The Atlantic) The veteran political commentator and author David Frum is joining The Atlantic as a senior editor beginning March 31, James Bennet, its editor-in-chief, announced Wednesday. In his new role, Frum will write for the website and the magazine and participate in Atlantic events. FishbowlNY Frum has most recently been a contributor to CNN and The Daily Beast, but this marks a return to full-time journalism for him. Frum has worked for the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal and Forbes. He served as a special assistant and speech writer for President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002, and was a senior foreign policy advisor for Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign. NYTIn addition to his long career as a journalist, Frum has written eight books; in 2012, he wrote an eBook, Why Romney Lost, that was published within 48 hours of the presidential election. Capital New York He joins a national affairs team that includes heavyweights like Molly Ball, Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Fallows, Conor Friedersdorf and Peter Beinart. In a statement, Bennet called Frum a “gutsy, heterodox thinker and a lovely writer.”

Phone Hacker Says His News Corp. Bosses Pressured Him to Take The Fall for Others (HuffPost / Reuters) The former royal editor at Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct News of The World told a London court on Wednesday senior figures at News Corp.’s British newspaper arm put pressure on him to take the flak for phone-hacking to protect others. The Independent Clive Goodman, 56, who was jailed in 2007 for illegally accessing royal aides’ messages, told the Old Bailey that in return for not implicating or naming those involved in illegal practices at the tabloid, he was promised he could “bounce back” with a job and a similar salary inside the U.K. arm of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Andy Coulson, the former World editor, who was later David Cameron’s media chief, was named by Goodman as one executive who tried to secure his silence. WSJ The testimony contradicts News Corp.’s long-standing assertions that executives at the U.K. unit, called News International at the time, were broadly unaware of alleged widespread phone hacking. Goodman said the lawyer told him at the time that he could keep his job at the World if he didn’t implicate others in phone hacking. The attorney’s name can’t be published because of British restrictions on reporting some legal proceedings. NYT / Reuters After the phone hacking was made public in 2007, News International officials said publicly and in Parliament that the practice had been limited to Goodman and a private detective, Glenn Mulcaire, who worked for the paper. Rebekah Brooks, who had become News International’s chief executive, and Coulson are now on trial, accused of conspiracy to hack phones.

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Jury Returns $563,000 Libel Verdict Against Boston Herald (Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly) A Suffolk Superior Court jury has found that the Boston Herald committed actual malice in a story which falsely reported a woman had engaged in “sexual acts” with a Bridgewater, MA inmate during a 2009 visit. Media Nation The plaintiff, Joanna Marinova, was awarded about $563,000 in damages. Marinova’s lawyer, David Rich, “argued that the story was intended to sensationalize a trip that his client and Rep. Gloria Fox made to the prison to investigate alleged incidents of inmate abuse.” Boston Globe Marinova sued the newspaper and reporter Jessica Van Sack for the story, which the Herald published on May 28, 2009. After deliberating for about 15 hours, jurors concluded that three parts of the story were false and that two of them defamed Marinova, according to her attorney and the verdict slip.

Obama to Make First Appearance on Ellen as President (THR / The Live Feed) President Obama has lined up another media appearance as he works to get people to sign up for health insurance by the March 31 deadline. Obama will appear on Thursday’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show, via a live shot from the White House. Politico / Dylan Byers on Media “This is the president’s first appearance on the show since he has been elected to office,” Melissa Little Padgitt wrote in a brief press release. “[He] will talk to Ellen about Obamacare in an effort to encourage people without health insurance to sign up for coverage.” President Obama last week appeared on Between Two Ferns, the Funny Or Die digital video series, where he touted the benefits of Obamacare during a humorous interview with host Zach Galifianakis. LostRemote Additionally, for those who weren’t completely consumed by the Ellen DeGeneres Oscars selfie heard round the Internet, Ellen’s record-breaking Oscars tweet (3,402,000 retweets as we speak) topped the previous retweet record held by Obama, as his “four more years” tweet featuring a photo of him and First Lady Michelle Obama hugging after his re-election amassed 780,000 retweets.

Goldman Sachs Elevator Has A New Book Deal (Business Insider) It didn’t take long for John LeFevre — the man behind the satirical Twitter feed, Goldman Sachs Elevator — to get a new deal after Simon and Schuster dumped him. GalleyCat Grove Atlantic will publish LeFevre’s book Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, And Billion-Dollar Deals, a book behind the Twitter account @GSElevator which claims to document conversations overheard in the Goldman Sachs elevators. NYT The publisher agreed to pay LeFevre a six-figure advance, a spokeswoman said. The book will be released in November.

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Two Men Charged in Stabbing of Hong Kong Journalist (HuffPost / Reuters) Authorities in Hong Kong charged two men on Wednesday with wounding following last month’s stabbing of the former editor of a major newspaper. Police charged the two 37-year-old men handed over by Chinese authorities on Monday after they were arrested in Guangdong province, across the border from the former British colony. AFP Shortly before the hit men were charged, two Hong Kong media executives were attacked on Wednesday by four masked men armed with metal bars. The fresh assault sparked renewed concern for press freedom in the city following the chopping attack on ex-editor Kevin Lau last month. The man and woman targeted in Wednesday’s attack were senior figures of Hong Kong Morning News Media Group, which plans to launch an independent Chinese-language daily later in the year, media reported.

U.K. Confirms Bolstered Tax Incentives for Big-Budget Movies (THR) The British government on Wednesday outlined its latest annual budget, with the entertainment industry once again paying attention to updates on incentives schemes, which came in the form of confirmations of previously unveiled measures. In his budget, George Osborne confirmed a previously announced bolstering of tax incentives for big movies and the planned launch of incentives for stage productions, including plays, musical, operas and dance shows, among others. LA Times / Company Town Among the key changes, the government said it would offer a 25 percent credit on the first $33 million of qualifying production expenditure, and 20 percent thereafter. Currently, such projects could only claim a 20 percent rebate. Additionally, companies wouldn’t have to spend as much in the country to qualify for U.K. film rebates. The government would reduce the minimum U.K. expenditure requirement — including money spent on post-production services — from 25 percent to 10 percent.

Bloomberg Plans Businessweek-Style ‘Design Innovation’ Across All Platforms (Poynter / MediaWire) In a memo to staffers Wednesday, Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin B. Smith laid out marching orders for the company amid standard media-CEO pronouncements (“Technology is disrupting every distribution platform. Consumers are redefining decades-old consumption habits”). The company plans to shift its focus “to global business in order to attract and engage an even broader audience of business decision makers.” Medium / Justin B. Smith This shift presents a huge opportunity. As our traditional competitors buckle under their own legacy weight, we are unencumbered, benefiting from a series of unique corporate advantages: the Bloomberg business model, our owner’s insistence on long-term perspective, a culture of disruption and an established tradition of high-quality journalism. Seizing this opportunity will require long-term investment and a large appetite for transformation and risk, as well as a tolerance for intermittent failure. But the Bloomberg culture, long defined by urgency, entrepreneurship and adaptability provides a great foundation for this work.

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Sony to Add Original TV Shows for PlayStation (WSJ) Sony Corp. is venturing into original TV programming for its PlayStation as part of an ambitious effort to make the device a home for TV and not just videogames. The electronics and entertainment giant plans to offer original series through the gaming console, on top of an online pay-TV service it plans for users of the device. First up will be a one-hour supernatural drama series, Powers, to be produced by the company’s in-house studio, Sony Pictures Television, company executives said. Users will be able to stream the show just as they would watch, say, House of Cards on Netflix.

As Malaysia Airlines Coverage Continues, CNN Benches Some Shows (TVNewser) As ratings rise, CNN has benched some shows that don’t fit the coverage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Crossfire has been off for more than a week, last seen on CNN Monday, March 10. The planned Monday night experimental shows — The Don Lemon Show and Making The Case, co-hosted by CNN legal analysts Sunny Hostin and Mark Geragos — were replaced Monday night by a full-hour MH370 special report hosted by Lemon. Wednesday’s Death Row Stories at 10 p.m. ET, which has been re-airing Sunday’s episode, did not air. In its place was another MH370 special report also hosted by Lemon.

BuzzFeed Hires First Film Critic (FishbowlNY) BuzzFeed has hired Alison Willmore as the site’s first film critic. Willmore comes to BuzzFeed from Indiewire, where she served as TV editor since 2012. Willmore got her start at the Independent Film Channel, where she helped bring blogs, movie reviews, interviews and more to IFC.com. Her work has also appeared in AV Club, Time Out New York and Movieline.

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Carole Radziwill on Her New Book And Dueling With Bravo’s Delusional Diva (FishbowlNY / Lunch) When I first made my date to have lunch with Carole Radziwill some time ago, I was looking forward to talking to her about her first novel, The Widow’s Guide to Sex & Dating as well as her astonishing best-selling memoir, What Remains, in which she chronicled the aftermath of her husband’s death in a deep, affecting and intricately personal way. It was fascinating to me to see that she had approached the earth-shattering event of losing her husband, Anthony Radziwill, from two diametrically different perspectives and chosen to write about young widowhood twice.

Comcast Expands Out-of-Home Live TV Service to 53 Channels, But Still No Broadcast Nets (Variety) Comcast has added 18 live channels to its outside-the-home streaming service — bringing the lineup to 53 — but it remains devoid of live broadcast programming from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. The nation’s biggest cable operator’s Xfinity TV Go app and Web streaming service now offers live feeds of Turner’s TBS, TNT and truTV; NBCUniversal’s USA Network, Bravo, E!, Syfy, mun2, Oxygen and Sprout; A+E Networks’ A&E and History; Scripps Networks Interactive’s Food Network, Cooking Channel, DIY Network, HGTV and Travel Channel; and the Starz premium channel.

ABC Board Approves Three-Year Deal With NewsOne (TVSpy) A new three-year deal with ABC NewsOne has been approved by the ABC Television Affiliates Association Board of Governors. The agreement addresses the use of content on traditional platforms as well as digital and social media platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed. NewsOne provides around-the-clock coverage of news and sports to ABC owned and affiliated stations, domestic programs, foreign news agencies and ABC News.